Cut Throat Business
by superflyse
Summary: The body of Marley Rose was found on the stage of the theater, where she had just been cast as Rachel Berry's understudy in the production of Chicago. It is now up to Detectives Karofsky and Fabray of the NYPD to solve the case. The regular suspects all appear, in various forms.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: So here is something that is a lot different from anything I have ever written before. In that I've never really written crime and mystery or multiple chapter, so everyone will just have to bear with me. If you have any feedback or reviews, they would be greatly appreciated._

I'm trying to base it on the crime show format, so, I'm hoping that's how it will work out, so this is really just the cold open.

Funnily enough, the situation is AU, but hopefully the characters aren't too OOC. Obviously, things that would have happened in this world would change a character a bit.  


_Don't worry if your favorite character hasn't appeared yet, most of the regular suspects are going to show up at one point or another. If you want to tip the cards in their favor, just send me a review and we'll see what happens._

Thanks to Becca, who doubles as my Beta and the bad influence encouraging me to write. So really, send hate mail her way.  


* * *

_Prologue_

"Ladies and gentleman, we have a new member of the company joining us today." Cooper Anderson, Director Extraordinaire, announced to the cast and crew of Chicago as they say before him. "Since Rachel here," he started as he pointed to her, who nodded in his direction, "is moving on to greener pastures from our humble little stage." He paused to allow his assembled audience to laugh at his joke, humility was rarely in Cooper's bag of tricks, "So coming into the company as our understudy for the role of Velma Kelly, I present to you, Ms Marley Rose!".

As Marley came up on the stage, there was applause of ranging enthusiasm. Rachel Berry, being the most enthusiastic of them all, loved to help the understudies and teach them that they will be brilliant, but will never be as brilliant as her.

Marley, nervously waved to the crowd, "Thank you so much, I look forward to learning so much from all of you". The other girls in the company looked less than thrilled at the new interloper.

"I give her a week, before Rachel has made her cry for some misdemeanor" Wade 'Unique' Adams, who played Matron Mama Morton, said in an undertone to the rest.

"Please, I give her two days before one of Rachel's stalker bloggers crush her with negative reviews, or bring up all the dirt they can find, not that I think there is much dirt on this one. She probably warmed up by singing with squirrels in Central Park on the way over" Tina Cohen-Chang, a member of the company, scoffed before walking off stage, without a backward look. The rest of the girls returned to their gossip.

Blaine Anderson, Cooper's younger brother and the Stage Manager walked over to Marley to introduce himself.

"Are they always like that?" Marley asked as she pointed to the rest of the cast.

"For the most part, they require an adjustment period to make sure someone has earned their part and didn't get it by sleeping with the director" Blaine said with a roll of his eyes.

"But.. I didn't do that." Marley squawked out, pleading with her eyes to Blaine for him to believe her.

Blaine laughed, and put his hand on her shoulder, "can never be too sure in this industry."

Blaine and Marley talked for a few moments longer and started to see that everyone was heading out, after all, the theatre was dark that night and they were just there for the meeting, rather than a show, so they wanted to quickly get out to get on with their night off.

"You coming?" Blaine asked, pointing to the door.

"No, I think I want to practice a little bit, is there a tape deck or something I can use since I doubt the band wants to stick around?"

"You can never be sure, even though Brad is the band leader for this production, getting him away from a piano can be a bit of a challenge, so he is normally good to ask, but I think he has a gig tonight playing somewhere. But you never quite know with him, he is a bit of a puzzle"

Blaine was only to happy to show Marley the ropes of out of hours practice time, before making his farewells and heading home.

Before too long, Marley Rose, new to the Broadway stage stood proudly in the middle, practicing the vocals for "I Can't Do It Alone", she had to have them down, with some movement for her rehearsal session with the choreographer, Jesse St James tomorrow. She had heard stories about Jesse and like the rest of the cast, he wanted people to prove themselves.

She had gone through the entire number, but there was someone else in the theatre that had their own act of desperation.

Just as Marley reached the final line, and started to belt out "ALON...", the final note was never able to reach the rafters, as in the midst, someone had come behind Marley, covered her mouth and slit her throat. "Not with me around..." a voice slowly sung out as the air left Marley's lungs and blood leaked from her throat until the life of Marley Rose was no more.

The next day, Blaine was opening the theater early with his boyfriend Kurt.

"Kurt, you said if we did this that I would get to be Glinda this time!" Blaine whined out, as Kurt was running towards the stage. "Oh, we are doing Wicked this time?" Kurt turned around to take a hold of Blaine's scarf, "You don't want me to be the Maria to your Tony?" Kurt whispered in an attempt of vocal seduction.

Blaine gave into the charms of his boyfriend, "Ok, but we are starting at the dance!"

"Done!" and Kurt ran to the stage, only to slip. Blaine hurried over, and noticed the damage, "Did you cut yourself on something? That's a lot of blood..."

Kurt said nothing, he simply sat, dumb struck as he surveyed the scene around him, his body froze when he saw a body lying in a heap on the floor. "B-Blaine, it's not mine... call 911"


	2. Chapter 2

AN: So, the 18th Precinct of the NYPD is kind of made up, it exists but is called the Midtown Central Precinct, but it is the Precinct that is closest to the theater district but let's just use our imaginations anyway!

This we have the murder investigation underway!  
This is officially the longest story I've written, so yay!

Once again, thanks to Becca for betaing and encouraging and general fangirling.

* * *

In the Homicide Division of the 18th Precinct of the NYPD, sat two detectives currently discussing the game of football from the night before, "Karofsky, how did you miss Monday Night Football? It was the Jets and the Dolphins! You love sitting around dissecting the fact that dolphins make for a ridiculous mascot for a football team! It doesn't even matter, I'm just upset because it was your turn to buy nachos, and because you weren't there, there were way too many men hitting on me. You know the deal Karofsky! You buy me nachos, eat half of said nachos and protect me from the advances of creepy men." A somewhat distraught Detective Quinn Fabray was berating her long time partner Detective David Karofsky for mysteriously bailing on their Monday Night Long Day, Bad Day ritual, as she moved folders erratically around her desk.

"Fabray, you are a homicide detective in the New York Police Department, who manages to get grown man to cry almost on a daily basis, you couldn't handle them yourself?" Karofsky uttered disbelievingly.

"Well, it's not that, it's just when you are there, they don't come near me. I think some men might find you threatening, Davey boy, but not me. You know you're my hero, right?" Quinn finished with a flutter of her eyelashes.

"Why, detective Fabray, are you trying to seduce me?" Dave asked, raising his voice to give him a Southern Belle accent, with a hand clutched to his chest.

"Dave, we can't both be damsels in our little role play here" Quinn said, once again huffing out in frustration.

"I'm all for equality," he raised his fist in solidarity. Quinn just rolled her eyes and continued moving things around her desk.

"You know there is no reason to look busy, Quinn, Bieste is in her office" not that Dave, wasn't busy, he was simply looking through his email and tying up some administrative loose ends, that may involve a short email to his father.

"No, I'm pretty sure Lopez was rummaging through my desk again, she sent me an ominous email, and I can't find the Murphy file that I was working on yesterday." Quinn groaned, finally giving up and sitting heavily in the seat again.

"You know this is what happens when you let her into your personal life, it is like giving her full access all the time, I keep trying to warn you, Quinn," Dave said, using his mock warning voice.

"Oh, Davey, you say that like it is a bad thing. I did do some digging on your new boy, you don't want to know what I found out?"

"I think this is why they call you Satan, Santana, say your name and suddenly you are there." Dave let out a chuckle, as he went to get a coffee and completely ignoring her digs into his personal life.

"Wait, there's a new boy? Did you abandon me, your partner on the force and off the force?" Quinn abandoned her search, to join Dave at the coffee pot, as Santana strolled over.

"Hey, not so loud, just because you two know, doesn't mean the entire precinct needs to know. But, on and off the force? Wait, are you jealous?"

Quinn scoffed, "It's just, we have Partner Rituals, and shut up, I am _not_ jealous". Santana watched the interaction, "Quinn, please tell me that you are on the search for action, because, you really need to get laid."

"Whatever," Quinn rolled her eyes, ignoring the smirk that Santana was sporting, "Why are you here anyway?" She looked at Santana and noticed the file she had been looking for.

"Murphy's lawyer is coming in this afternoon, wants to talk plea bargains. Needed to check a few facts, added bonus of confusing you. Here's it back, and remember to come home early tonight. Britts wants family dinner. Davey, you are of course welcome."

And with that, Santana had left the office.

"She certainly does know how to leave with an impact." Karofsky noted, and Quinn nodded in agreement.

"KAROFSKY! FABRAY! My office now!" Lt. Bieste shouted from her office. Being Head of the Homicide Division, Bieste took no shit. She was very much a looks can be deceiving type of woman, but anyone who knew her better, knew that Shannon Bieste was a fair and capable officer of the law, and there were very few disciplinary actions from this particular department. Dave and Quinn went to take their coffees into their boss' office.

"Take a seat" Bieste told them, as she leaned back into her own.

"There's been a murder at the Ambassador Theatre, a new girl just hired as Rachel Berry's understudy. You two will be taking lead, just remember that discretion is to be advised, you are going to have to deal with the press and PR Agents and all that other theater hooey. Don't fuck it up and make me look bad, I am trying to keep the press conferences to the bear minimum, you know that." Bieste gave them the briefing and sent them on their way.

Karofsky was driving, with Fabray looking at some notes on her lap. "Do you know much about this Rachel Berry character? Bieste seemed to think she is worth note." Karofsky asked tentatively.

"Character? She's an actress Dave." Quinn was clearly distracted.

"It's a turn of phrase, Quinn, I know she's an actress, she's the lead but is she anyone of note? Is she going to be one of the dramatic theater types?"

"Probably Dave, I'm expecting lots of dramatics and a whole lot of press coverage, so let's just keep everything on the up and up, pretty much what we normally do." She said with a shrug.

"So, I'm going to assume all these flashing lights and uniforms are our stop. On the up and up Fabray, your words" He joked as he put the car into park and got out.

"Funny Karofsky, real funny." Quinn put her papers on the chair and followed him through the crowd. She noticed that before the masses of people, there was somewhat of a shrine including pictures, playbills and flowers, with a poster saying "Rachel Berry- Taken Too Soon".

"Hey, Karofsky!" Quinn yelled out, before he crossed the police tape, and he doubled back. "Did you see this?" and pointed to the display. "I thought Rachel was the lead, and the understudy was dead" Quinn getting out the notebook from her pocket. "Must have been a false report that leaked, but just means we might have to keep our eye out for some overenthusiastic fans"

Walking away from the shrine through the sea of reporters, fans and people who wanted to see the carnage, Karofsky led the way holding up his shield, "NYPD! Coming through! Move it!" he yelled out on the way, with the occasional shove, for those not smart enough to move on their own.

One guy with a glasses and a jewfro seemed brave enough to ask the towering Karofsky, "Detective, is it true that someone was found murdered on the stage?" he held out his microphone to Karofsky, as Quinn, just raised an eyebrow, glad that Karofsky had the task of manhandling the crowd.

"Have the police issued a statement yet?" Karofsky offered with a growl, as the guy shook his head. "Then, I won't be issuing a statement" and he went back to trying to get through the crowd, with Quinn following close behind.

After what seemed like way too long, Officer Puckerman was there to greet them.

"Puck, what do we have here?"

"Female, late teens, fresh off the bus into the city, this is her first job. The stage manager, Blaine Anderson, and his boyfriend, over there," Puck pointed at a very shaken Blaine and Kurt who were hugging each other in the corner, "They came in early to use the stage and found the body, her name is Marley Rose. Anderson said that she was introduced to the cast last night, and then stuck around to rehearse. The Medical Examiner got here not that long ago."

"Okay, thanks Puckerman. Did you get the same speech from your Sergeant too? Because that is the first time in a while you haven't referred to Zizes as some crude version of your woman" Quinn finished with a chuckle.

"I wish Fabray, last time Lauren heard me, I got a talking to at home and lost certain privileges. She also told my Mom, who gave me a talk about respecting women." Puck whispered, hoping that none of the other officers overheard.

Karofsky chuckled, "I think you need to practice that speech and give it on a regular basis down at the station. Maybe in the holding cells."

Puck laughed as he headed back outside for crowd control. Quinn and Dave walked over to Lauren Zizes, the medical examiner, to question her about Marley's cause of death.

She quickly got underway with talking about what had possibly happened, "It seems that she was killed last night between 9pm and 2am, judging by the rigor mortis setting in, I'm not entirely sure what kind of blade yet, but definitely a blade through the throat, and she bled out. No sign of a struggle, so I think who ever it was, must have come from behind and she didn't hear them approaching. I'll do a tox screen, just to make sure she wasn't high as a kite and that's how she failed to hear someone approaching."

"Maybe she was just caught up in the moment, apparently she was rehearsing." Karofsky suggested with a shrug.

"No excuse. Know your surroundings. First rule of everything" Zizes got up, and went over to talk to Brittany S. Pierce, who was walking around taking photos of various things on and around the stage.

"Quinn, why is Brittany here?" Dave questioned while Quinn was busy looking at her notes from what Zizes had told them.

"Davey boy, it's Brittany," Quinn sighed with a shrug of her shoulders, "you know she just sometimes shows up and shows the officer in charge her badge and a note signed by Lord Tubbington. She likes to come and take crime scene photos and talk to Zizes. We aren't allowed to talk to her about it because of the other note signed by Lord Tubbington. Just accept it as part of the quirks of our job and one of many surrounding Brittany S. Pierce. Tonight, when have our family dinner, you should try to talk to Lord Tubbington about it, you might get more answers that way."

"Oh, Quinnie girl, I am not talking to that cat. He gives me attitude and it freaks me out" Karofsky tried to shake off some of the memories of dealing with Lord Tubbington. "Alright, so I say we talk to the stage manager and find out how they know." Quinn tells Dave, who nodded, and walked towards them.

"Remember, we are playing nice and you are a friend to the gays, detective, a friend to the gays" she mock scolded him.

"Last time it was not my fault that guy thought I was homophobic, I don't even know how he got that idea."

"Dave, you walked into the interview room muttering about the stupid flag, he misheard you."

"I was attacked with a flag at the protest for trying to get through to stop them from beating on some stupid kid, so no one would get charged with assault! I was allowed to be upset that no one was able to see my point." Dave was trying to keep control of his actions as to not make a scene, as Quinn looked on in amusement.

"Yes, Dave, you are allowed to be upset, just not in front of the witnesses" Quinn chuckled, at the memory of Karofsky shouting from Bieste's office that he was a gay man, who had worked through the internalized homophobia in high school and wouldn't do this. While Bieste was sympathetic, he still got the write up and had to sit through a workshop about discrimination.

"Whatever, Fabray" he mumbled, and tried to get back to the professional detective mode.

"Mr Anderson, Mr Hummel?" Detective Fabray asked, all signs of her bantering with Dave gone now. Both of them nodded at the detective. "I'm Detective Fabray, this is Detective Karofsky, we understand that you two called in the discovery of the body this morning?"

The taller man nodded, still in shock of what had happened, and was wearing pants that were clearly too short for him. Judging from one of the bags of evidence that Brittany was currently looking at, he must have got some blood on his pants and had to change into some that his boyfriend had backstage.

"Yes, Blaine Anderson, I'm the stage manager for the show." He shook both of the detectives hands. Quinn raised an eyebrow at Dave, who just assumed that he was coping by pretending it was all part of the show. 'Each to the their own' he shrugged a shoulder in response.

"Can you tell us what you found?" Karofsky prompted Blaine to start.

"I have keys to the theatre, and sometimes Kurt and I come in early to have an improv theatre performance together," Blaine paused, as if he were waiting for them to make a comment, when Quinn made a gesture for him to continue, he did. "Kurt ran a bit before me and slipped on something, I thought maybe something on the stage. At first I thought Kurt had hurt himself and panicked thinking what I'd have to do to get it fixed before the show tonight. There was a lot of blood on Kurt's leg, and it seemed like he'd really done some damage to it, but..."

"It wasn't mine" Kurt seemed to break out of his shock, "there was all this blood on my new designer pants, I saw the blood but I didn't feel any pain and when I looked around, there was this big puddle of blood leading back to the body crumpled on the stage."

"Do you two often come into the theatre on early mornings like this?" Quinn asked, as Blaine put an arm around Kurt, who was leaning into his shoulder.

"Yes, we both used to perform a lot in high school and college, so it's like living the dream." Blaine seemed to stare into the middle distance, apparently lost in a haze of memories, Quinn and Dave just looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

Dave, cleared his throat to regain Blaine's attention, "Did anyone know about your performances?"

"uh... Rachel walked in on us a couple of times, maybe a few of the other cast members have seen us. We get caught up in the moment, Rachel just felt the need to interrupt us to give us notes on our performance." Blaine explained, blushing a little bit as he did. "Rachel, as in Rachel Berry?" Quinn wanted to clarify.

"The very diva herself." Kurt added with a bitter snarl, "she comes into the theatre at all different times like she owns the place with her unwanted commentary. Our version of I'll Cover You was flawless! FLAWLESS!" he finished with a sob into Blaine's neck. Quinn and Dave looked at each other with the unspoken agreement that this outburst would be talked about later.

"Ok, thank you very much, we'll be in touch, if you remember anything else, here's my card." Quinn handed them her card and walked off with Karofsky by her side.

"What do you think that was about?" Quinn finally asked, once they were out of earshot of Blaine and Kurt.

"The words of a bitter, failed performer, who was berated by someone with all the success that they wanted, or someone who doesn't handle criticism well…"

"Or maybe, Rachel just walked in on a moment that wasn't meant to be open to the public. I think we'll have to talk to him in a day or two, and not at the scene of the crime." Quinn concluded. At that point, the angry outburst of a voice coming down the aisle through the audience, with a uniformed officer following telling her that it was a crime scene and she needed to leave.

"Is this the Rachel Berry? Looks like those posters from outside." Karofsky noted.

"Well, that was sooner then expected. At least we don't have to go through agents. Let's take the small moments." Quinn and Dave, walked down to the aisle to meet her. "Excuse me, Ms Berry, you can't be here. This is a crime scene." Quinn explained in her calm and collected talking to a witness voice.

"I'm not Ms Berry, I'm Shelby Corcoran, I'm the producer of this show, that looks like I am going to have to shut down for however long, for whatever reason. Were you looking to make a Police Talent show with my theatre?"

Quinn and Dave looked at each other and back to Shelby in disbelief, when she said she wasn't Ms Berry. That's going to be a story.

"There's been a murder, Ms Corcoran. Someone has been murdered on the stage. A member of your company I believe."

"RACHEL!" Ms Corcoran tried to run to the stage where Zizes was starting to pack up the body to take to the morgue, but Dave held the distraught woman back.

"No, it is not Rachel, it's Marley Rose." Quinn quickly informed her, in the hopes that Shelby would stop trying to escape Dave's grips.

"So, not Rachel? Rachel's still alive, she wasn't murdered, okay, okay, deep breaths." Shelby seemed to be talking to herself, more than Quinn and Dave. Dave was looking at Quinn, questioning whether it would be safe to let her go without wreaking havoc on the crime scene. Quinn nodded, so Dave let Shelby go and she then folded into one of the seats.

"We're Detectives Fabray and Karofsky, we are investigating the murder of Marley Rose. Ms Corcoran, did you know her?" Quinn asked Shelby and handed over her card. "She's the new girl, just hired. She only met the cast last night, Cooper had a meeting introducing her to everyone. I didn't think she was quite right for the part, had that shining naivety that didn't quite fit the production values of Chicago, but Cooper and Jesse disagreed. I think they were both hoping they'd be able to trick her into their beds." Shelby seemed particularly bitter about this point.

"Who are Cooper and Jesse?" Karofsky asked, looking to clarify.

"Cooper Anderson is the director and Jesse St James is the choreographer." Shelby filled in the blanks.

"Do they make a habit of sleeping with new members of the cast?" Karofsky asked, hoping that Quinn wasn't going to remember why she ended up a detective and not an actresses, like she originally planned.

"They only sleep with the ones too stupid and naive to say no", Shelby said with a sardonic chuckle.

"You seemed awfully concerned about Rachel, what is your relationship with her?" Quinn tried to pick her words carefully, but it tended to come out bluntly when she did.

"If you ask her it is strictly professional, I just happen to be producer of the production she's in."

"But we aren't asking her..." Karofsky growled out, Quinn shot him a look.

"I'm her mother, well biologically at least" Shelby sighed out wistfully.

"And she doesn't know?" Quinn questioned, as Shelby nodded, "But you look so much a like."

Shelby shook her head and laughed, "it's funny, everyone can see it, but no one questioned it. As far as I know Rachel never went looking for her biological mother, I never went looking for her, our paths just crossed and I wasn't going to ruin her status quo and possibly lose my star performer. I just let her believe what she wanted to, that it was some trick of fate." Shelby seemed locked in a haze of memories, as Dave and Quinn stepped back,

"Do we ask more about that or is not important to the investigation?" Karofsky put the question for Quinn to decide.

"I don't think any further back story is necessary, until we talk to Rachel and then we find out, if we need to know more about their family business."

Detectives Karofsky and Fabray stepped back into continue their questioning.

"How involved are you with the running of the show?" Karofsky asked

"Not so much the day-to-day running of the show, I tend to handle things on the bigger perspective, I took it upon myself to mentor Rachel, but I don't really do that in the theater, I just help her meet the right people and try keep her out of trouble, my motherly duties under the guise of a helpful producer. I'm not sure what she makes of it," Shelby kind of sniffed, "Are there any more questions? I don't think I can be of any further help and I do have a lot of phone calls to make." And suddenly, there was the Shelby Corcoran that stormed into the theatre, back to being professional as ever, any emotion in her face and words were gone.

"No, that is it. We may have some follow-up questions in the future, but if we do, we'll be in touch."

Quinn looked at Dave, as they watched the Officer escort Shelby out, "It seems to me, that we need to talk to one, Rachel Berry."


End file.
